In Australia this concentration of gold took place in the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago in the eastern states, and thousands of millions of years ago in Western Australia. As well as gold, the fluids can carry other dissolved minerals, such as quartz. This is why gold is often found with quartz.
Australia is the second largest gold producer in the world, and production is projected to rise at an average of 6.8% between 2022 and 2025, reaching 390 tonnes per annum.
Buy Australian gold
These 99.99% pure gold 1 kilo cast bars are now available. Each bar is stamped with The Perth Mint's distinctive Australian Origin Gold logo and a serial number and has a certificate featuring weight, purity and the serial number.
Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes. Geoscience Australia estimates that 60 per cent of Australia's gold reserves are in Western Australia.
Australia ranks top with highest gold reserves in 2020, followed by Russia and the US a distant third.
Countries such as Switzerland, Australia, and Canada are known for producing high-purity gold, while countries such as China and Russia are the largest producers of gold in the world.
Most gold produced today in the US comes from large open-pit heap leach mines in the state of Nevada.
Currently, the world's largest source of gold is located in the Witwatersrand basin. This area in South Africa has provided a large amount of the world's gold. It is also believed that there is still about 40% of the basin that has yet to be mined and still holds much more gold.
The main destination of Gold exports from Australia are: China ($5.86B), Hong Kong ($2.33B), Singapore ($1.95B), India ($1.42B), and Switzerland ($1.33B). The fastest growing export markets for Gold of Australia between 2020 and 2021 were China ($4.73B), India ($1.14B), and Hong Kong ($1.03B).
What Country Has the Most Gold? The country with the most gold is the United States, with 8,133 metric tons in the American gold reserve. This amounts to a value of $480.84 billion, going by the price of gold at the beginning of January 2023.
Your finds
If you find gold or other minerals on a mining tenement where you have have permission to prospect, then these may only be kept with the permission of the mining tenement holder.
Gold conjures images of Australia's beaches, mineral wealth, grain harvests and the fleece of Australian wool. Green evokes the forests, eucalyptus trees and pastures of the Australian landscape. Green and gold are also the colours of Australia's national floral emblem – the golden wattle.
Estimates by the Geological Survey of Victoria indicate that 75 Moz of undiscovered gold may occur in the Stawell, Bendigo and Melbourne zones1, while several multi-million ounce deposits in Victoria potentially remain undiscovered.
Where is All the Gold? The World Gold Council estimates that miners have historically extracted a total of 201,296 tonnes of gold, leaving another 53,000 tonnes left in identified underground reserves.
Western Australia exported 98.7 per cent of Australia's gold in 2010. Around half of this was gold produced from Western Australian ores. The remainder was gold sourced from other Australian states and territories, and gold imported from overseas (mainly from Thailand, Papua New Guinea and the United States).
The United States holds the largest stockpile of gold reserves in the world by a considerable margin at over 8,100 tons. The U.S. government has almost as many reserves as the next three largest gold-holding countries combined (Germany, Italy, and France).
Gold production ranked by major countries 2022
In 2022, China's mines produced an estimated 330 metric tons of gold. China is the largest gold producer in the world.
The United States has the largest gold reserve, with more than 8,000 metric tons of gold. This was more than twice the gold reserves of Germany and more than three times the gold reserves of Italy and France.
If the world runs out of gold to mine, there are a few likely consequences. The first is that the price of gold will likely start to rise significantly due to simple supply and demand unless demand for the metal drops precipitously.
Yes, there is gold in the ocean.
Gold in the ocean is so dilute that its concentration is on the order of parts per trillion. Pictured above, the ROV Deep Discoverer investigates the geomorphology of Block Canyon in the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean waters do hold gold, but it's difficult to say exactly how much.
All of the gold that's deposited in our planet was formed during the explosions of stars and collisions of asteroids, and eventually found its way to earth over time.
Nevada is the U.S.'s largest gold-producing state, accounting for over 70% of the country's annual output. The state is home to some of the world's largest and most profitable mines, including: The Carlin Trend.
All the 4581.5 tonnes of gold in Fort Knox is entirely owned by The U.S. Department of the Treasury. Much of it is stored in standard bars measuring around 180 x 92 x 44mm each, similar to a standard house brick, and weighing 12.5kg.
The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky is not a production facility – it stores precious metal bullion reserves for the United States. No visitors are permitted in the facility.